“Their mother is looking for wedding dresses to bury her daughters in”: 14-year-old twins killed in Russian missile strike on Kramatorsk

A total of nine civilians were killed in the Russian missile strike on a pizzeria in Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast, on the evening of 27 June. Anna and Yuliia Aksenchenko, 14-year-old twins, were among the victims of the attack. Anna and Yuliia finished the eighth grade this year in School No.24 in Kramatorsk.

They would have celebrated their 15th birthday in September, Kramatorsk City Council's education department reported. Liudmyla Osadcha, maths teacher and acting principal at School No.24, told Ukrainska Pravda that Anna and Yuliia were diligent students and good at drawing, always helping with decorations for school celebrations and holidays. After the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion, the girls moved from Kramatorsk to a nearby village and studied remotely, Liudmyla said.

Photo: Yuliia Aksenchenko on Instagram

"They moved to the countryside some 50 km away from Kramatorsk, near the village of Dobropillia, for safety reasons. They spent their holidays in Kramatorsk with their mom, who works in a local hospital's surgery department," Liudmyla explained. She said that the girls arrived in Kramatorsk a few days before the missile strike, adding that this is the second tragic loss for the school: the principal was killed in February, also as a result of a Russian attack.

"They are twins and looked really alike, but they had very different personalities. Anna was more direct, while Yuliia was a bit quieter. Anna always supported and helped her.

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Their mother is now looking for wedding dresses [to bury them in], but they're impossible to find in our city right now, none of the [wedding] salons are open," Liudmyla said, adding that the twins will be buried in the settlement of Dobropillia.

Previously: A married couple who moved from Bakhmut to Odesa were killed by drone fragments following  a Russian attack on the night of 9-10 June.

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